After Canadian Soccer Business revealed their new vision for the future growth of the organization and its role in Canadian soccer, Group CEO James Johnson spoke with Kristian Jack in Montreal 🗣️
Find out more: https://cansb.ca/article/canadian-soccer-business-introduces-new-vision-for-its-role-in-the-future-of-the-game-in-canada
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2 Comments
We need teams in Edmonton and Saskatoon
Not sure how to make them successful.
But we need them for location.
Then split the game East West to save on money.
Dear Honourable Mr. Johnson,
As this is a “living document,” I believe it’s time to speak plainly about the state of professional football in Canada.
Having served as Legal Advisor to the Canadian Soccer Players Association, and later as the first — and still only — lawyer at the World Leagues Association, I was also among just 50 lawyers worldwide accepted into the ISDE Master of Laws (LL.M.) in International Sports Law, the world’s leading program for global football regulation and dispute resolution. Lastly, I sit on the European football agents association lawyers list as the only member in the Americas.
Today, I lead Pitchside Sports Consulting (PSC) — CONCACAF’s only football-regulatory consultancy, operating from Canada through to the Caribbean.
Across our regional work with players, clubs, federations, leagues, and agents, one truth is undeniable: Canadian football remains held back by three fundamental gaps:
⚖️ The Legal Gap: Of over 20,000 FIFA Football Tribunal cases globally, only 4.5% originate from CONCACAF, and less than 1% from Canada. This shows a complete disconnect from the global dispute-resolution mechanisms designed to protect players, clubs, and agents.
💰 The Financial Gap: The $500 million USD distributed annually through FIFA’s training compensation and solidarity mechanisms sees under 2% accessed by Canadian clubs. That is lost capital — and lost opportunity to reinvest in youth development and professional pathways.
🎓 The Capacity Gap: Decision-making bodies across Canadian football lack football-educated professionals. Without leaders formally trained in FIFA governance, dispute resolution, and regulatory compliance, sustainable progress remains impossible.
For years, PFACan has repeatedly sought free legal and regulatory advice from us — publicly and privately acknowledging that no one else in the region does what we do and how they can benefit from our services. Yet, after engaging us on structured proposals for football-law education and capacity-building, they quietly dismissed our recommendations and instead signed with the Johan Cruyff Institute — an academic body already established in Canada with no practical experience in FIFA tribunal procedures, international football law, agent regulations or player-status disputes to protect players. In other words, copying and pasting what everyone else in Canada is already doing — and somehow expecting different results 🤷🏽♂️
This is not player advocacy; it is institutional negligence disguised as reform. How does that benefit the players, who are paying for this association to function?
Until governance in Canada is led by qualified professionals with verified experience in the FIFA system, the game will remain administratively amateur and structurally stagnant.
It’s time to replace political optics with professional accountability — and build a football culture where players come first in principle, policy, and practice. ⚽